Note Taking, Writing Better, and Building a Knowledge Base And a review of the book "How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers" by Sönke Ahrens. Context Last year, I read a book called "How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning, and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers" by Sönke Ahrens to improve my writing and notetaking skills. This blog post is meant for anyone who has never heard the word "Zettlekasten" or "Commonplace Notebook", and wants to get better at extracting and maintaining the information they consume. We need four tools: · Something to write with and something to write on (pen and paper will do) · A reference management system (the best programs are free) · The slip-box (the best program is free) · An editor (whatever works best for you: very good ones are free) — Sönke Ahrens